Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-06-04

80, 600 warriors, at sunrise, September
8, 1871, met 250 royal galleys manned
by 120, 700 men, and in the four hours
of battle 5000 fell on one side and 25,-
900 on the other; yea, never since the
day when at Actium, thirty-onc years
before Christ, Augustus, with 200
ships, scattered the 220 ships of Mark
Antony, and gained universal domin-
ion as the prize; yea, since the day
when ut Salamis the twelve hundred
galleys of the Persians, manned by
500, 600 men, were crushed by Greeks
with less than n third of that force;
yea, never since the time of Noah, the
first ship captain, has the world seen
such Il miraculous creation as that Of
the
AMERICAN NAVY
in 1861. There were about 200 avail
able seamen IN all the naval ports and
receiving ships, and here and there an
old vessel. Yet orders were given to
blockade thIrty-iiye hundred miles of
sea coast, greater than the whole coast
of Europe, and besides that, the Ohio,
Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi,
and other great rivers, covering an ex-
tent Of 1000 more miles, were to be
patrolled. No wonder the whole civil
lied world burst into guffaw of laugh
ter at the seeming imposs'bility. But
the work was done, done almost I'M
mediately, done thoroughly, and done
with "a speed and consummate skill
tl,. ,,lt,g,l Ill 4t,,. hill &c ,a-,1 rs
chitecture. What brilliant achieve
ments are suggested by the mere men
ton of the names of the rear admirals.
If all they did should b, written,
every one, l suppose that even
the world itself could not con
tain the books that should be writ
ten. But these names have received
the honors due. The most of them
went TO select their graves under the
%cannonade of al the forts, navy yards
and men-of-war, the flags of all the
shipping and capitals at half-mast.
But recite to-day the deeds of
OUR MAYA. HEROES,
who have not yet recerVed appropriate
recognition. ''Behold also the ships"
As we will never know what our ma
tlonal prosperity is worth until we
realize what it cost, | recall the unre-
cited fact that the men of the navy ran
especial risks. They had not only the
human weaponry TO contend with, but
the tides, the fog, the storm. Net like
other ships could they run into harbor
at the approach of an equinox, or n
cyclone. or "A hurricane, because the
harbors are hostile. A miscalculation
of the tide might leave them on n bar,
and a fog might overthrow all the
plans of the wisest commodore and
admiral, and accident might leave
them, not on the land ready for an
ambulance, but ut the bottom of the
sea, as when the torpedo blew up the
Tecumseh in Mobile bay, and nearly
all on board persisted. They were at
the mercy of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans. which have no mercy. Such
tempests as wrecked the Spanish
Armada might any day swoop upon
the squadron. No hiding behind the
~earthworks. No digging in Of cavalry
spurs at the sound of retreat. MIghtiei
than all the fortresses on all the coasts
is the ocean when it bombards a flotilla
In the cemeteries for
FEDERAL AND CONFEDERATE
dead are the bodies Of most of those
who fell on the land. But where thos,
will not be known until the sea give!
up its dead. The Jack tars knew tina
while loving arms might carry the mar
who fell on the land and bury then
with solemn liturgy, and the honors o
war, for the bodies of those wh'
dropped from the ratlines into the sc:
or went down with all on board undo
the stoke Of a gunboat there remaineo
the shark and the whale and the end
less tossing of the sea which canno
rest. How will you find their grave
for this national decorationp Nothin,
but the archangel's trumpet shall reacl
their lowly bed. A few of them hav
been gathered into naval cemeteries o
the land, and you will garland the so'
that covers them, but who will pu
flowers on the
FALLE CREW
of the exploded Westtield and Shaw
sheen, and the sunken Southfield, an
the Winfield Scott. Bullets threaten
ing in front, bombs threatening from
above, torpedoes threatening from be
meath, and the ocean with its reputa
ton of six thousand years for ship
wreck lying all around, am l not RICH
in saying it required "A special courag'
for the navyp
1t looks picturesque and beautiful t.
see a war vessel going out through tn,
Narrows, sailors in new rig singing
ga life ON the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling deep"
the colors gracefully dipping to pass
ing ships, the decks Immediately
clean, and the guns NJ Quarantine firing
a parting salute. But the poetry is al
gone out of that ship as it comes out q
that engagement, its decks red witt
human blood, wheel house gone, The
cabins a pile of shattered mirrors anC
destroyed furniture, steering whee
broken, smoke-stack crushed. a han
dred-pound Whitworth rifle shot hav
mo left It's mark from mort Ia star